


The Lonely Heart of the Trickster

by Accendere



Category: Persona 5
Genre: All the Personas are in their third form, Bullying, Dark Persona 5 Protagonist, I made Akira suffer more than Akechi, Implied Childhood Sexual Abuse, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Implied/Referenced Rape/Non-con, Kurusu Akira needs a hug, Minor Akechi Goro/Persona 5 Protagonist, Minor Loki/Arsene/Robin Hood, Persona 5 Protagonist Has A Palace, Persona Interaction, Protective Phantom Thieves, So does Arsene, Suicidal Thoughts, Team as Family, Tsundere Akechi Goro
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-01
Updated: 2020-09-01
Packaged: 2021-03-06 00:41:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,027
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25684432
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Accendere/pseuds/Accendere
Summary: Arsene watched as his user continued to repeat time.He was always there, watching his user's actions throughout the repeated year, often failing to save even at least one of his friends from their deaths. Even in timelines where none of them died, they abandoned their leader and clung to their fake realities of their deepest desires.Arsene knew his user is tired, but still continued to achieve the timeline where everyone lives.Arsene just wanted Akira to stop.ORWhere Akira repeats the timeline more than 100 times and develops a Palace due to trauma. Arsene is sick of watching Akira suffer and reluctantly tries to persuade him into abandoning his friends, who are the cause of his suffering. Meanwhile, the PT is worried about their leader and finds out what was wrong with him when the MetaNav reacts to his name.
Relationships: Kurusu Akira & Maruki Takuto, Kurusu Akira & Phantom Thieves of Hearts
Comments: 7
Kudos: 128





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [A Self Fulfilling Prophecy](https://archiveofourown.org/works/24512056) by [Danidoesathing](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Danidoesathing/pseuds/Danidoesathing). 

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Arsène's thoughts.

Arsene watched as his user continued to repeat time.

He was always there in every single timeline, since from the very beginning. He watched his user's actions throughout the repeated year that only lead to futility.

He watched as every single action lead to new changes, new possibilities, and new problems 

He watched as Akira's mind continued to break at the end of each timeline. Although, the persona was sure that he was already way past the breaking point.

He was always there for his wielder during the times where Akira finally broke down. He was only human after all, a single person who shouldered so much burden.

Being Akira's persona, Arsene knew exactly why Akira continued to do this.

He knew of Akira's life before he came to Tokyo and always wished that he will never have to go back there ever again for the rest of his life. That was the reason why Akira was so attached to his friends, because for the first time in a long time, he was treated like a human being.

Unfortunately, Arsene hated them at the same time.

Don't get him wrong, Arsene was just as attached as Akira towards their friends. However, they were also the reason why Akira kept on destroying himself for the sake of their happiness.

As a result, he was conflicted.

However, Arsene already made his decision to make his user stop. He will only continue to suffer for years if he keeps this up. He didn't want to antagonize their friends, but he also didn't want Akira to continue on towards the path of despair.

This was the choice Arsene chose by his own will, not Akira's.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There will be plenty of changes in this timeline than canon due to Akira trying to fix everything, but it's still pretty much the same.
> 
> Akira's background is based on the one of the main characters of the manga Sachi-iro no One Room, which I highly recommend to read.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Takuto wonders about Akira's mental state.

Takuto was the first one to notice.

He may not be a licensed therapist, but he wasn't a cognitive psience researcher for nothing.

It was during his first session with Kurusu-kun that made him suspicious.

He was almost the same as Mishima, the other student he counseled, regarding the actions that tipped him off.

Kurusu-kun was not an easy person to read so it was less obvious to notice. His face was almost always neutral, never giving away signs of his emotions slipping. However, body language was another story.

He had notice the occasional flinches whenever someone touches him in a form of a friendly gesture, it wouldn't have been worrying if this hasn't happened so many times. He had also seen him keeping his distance from every single person even outside the school, he didn't actually took note of this until he saw Kurusu-kun keeping his distance even from his own _friends_.

Why even his own friends, though?

His mind wandered back from all his interactions with Akira. Aside from the red flags he had noticed, the teen seemed like just an ordinary boy. He was very pleasant to talk to and there was something about him that made Takuto just want to care for him, that's why he believed Akira's story of getting falsely accused, there was absolutely no way that such a kind person who had helped so many of his friends be the criminal the false rumors made him out to be.

That was why he was so upset when Akira refused to accept the reality his own heart desired. From his continued interaction with Akira up until his leave on November, he could tell that the teen was quite affected by his activities as a Phantom Thief. Of course he would, the cognitive world was the realm of mankind's hearts, filled with the hidden negative sides nobody wants anyone to see. After all, Takuto knew that he himself was quite affected after all that has happened.

The thought of the cognitive world got him thinking, he used Azathoth—or rather, Adam Kadmon's power to view the memories of the thieves in order to get a better look on their true desires. Takuto couldn't see the full extent of Akira's memories in some parts of his mind, including his life before Tokyo. However, he concluded that it was because Akira was special, as he was the only one (besides Akechi) among the thieves to not be affected by the new reality and was able to summon different personas unlike the others.

_"Could it truly be just that, Takuto?"_

The former counselor was startled at the sudden voice of his Persona, nearly dropping his juice box. Adam was usually quiet, only speaking when needed.

He had gotten used to Azath- _Adam_ after a while when he got him. At the time, he still couldn't fathom the idea of having a mythological being inside his head, as this was not what he had expected from beings from the collective unconscious. His Persona represented his desires to give people the happiness they so desired. Adam was quite talkative before, but that was because Takuto was still obsessed with granting people their desires. After his Palace was destroyed, Adam had been a lot more calm. He was quite surprised that personas were still active even after the cognitive world was gone.

"What do you mean?" Takuto asks.

 _"There might be another reason why you could not fully view his memories."_ His Persona responded.

Takuto raised an eyebrow at his persona's statement. Is there a reason why he couldn't see the entirety of Akira's memories?

He thought hard for a minute before realization dawned upon him.

"Do you mean... his Persona?"

_"Indeed. I do not know why but..."_

"But?"

Takuto waited patiently for his persona to speak again. Adam seemed to be strangely uneasy.

_"From the moment we learned about Raoul, there was something strangely off about him as if... As if **I met him before**..."_

What?

How can that even happen? Adam only knew of Raoul's existence when they viewed Akira's memories but before that...?

_"You should rest, Takuto. You've driven a lot today."_

He mentally agreed with his persona, he stretched his stiff limbs, which had gotten a bit numb after sitting inside a taxi for a whole day.

As he got to his bathroom to take a shower, he wondered just how he could help Akira after everything the teen has done for him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry, my writing is trash when it comes to writing character thoughts, that's why the first chapter is shit and short.
> 
> Just in case anyone is wondering about the tags and ask questions, everyone's personas are in their third tier forms. However, Loki and Robin Hood are still active even though Hereward is there because Akechi was given temporary access to Akira's Velvet Room, the reason why will be explained later but it's not really complicated. Here, Hereward is the neutral mediator between Loki and Robin Hood. 
> 
> Another thing, the Arsene in the first chapter is from before he evolved into Raoul. In the next future chapters, he is now referred to as Raoul.
> 
> Also, I ain't good with mythology and symbolism stuff, so sorry and please correct me if you noticed I made some mistakes.

**Author's Note:**

> Comments are greatly appreciated!


End file.
